Hibsh?sh, ?ayyim
HIBSH?SH, ?AYYIM
HIBSH?SH, ?AYYIM , an erudite coppersmith of *San'? (d. 1899), one of the first modern intellectuals of the Jewish community of *Yemen. His activity was communal as well as scholarly. In his public work he was the main partner of his younger colleague, R. Yi?ye Q?fih, in acting for the improvement of the education system of the Jews of Yemen and for the reshaping of their socio-economic structure. Together they sent letters to European Jewish welfare organizations asking them to send modern teachers to Yemen. Hibsh?sh was the first Yemenite-Jewish writer who decided to compose a history of his community based on written, authorized sources, including many Muslim-Arabic works, and not just oral traditions as was the case with R. Yi?ye ??li? in Megillat Teman. In this work he was followed by other San'?n? Jewish scholars such as R. Shalom Qora? and R. 'Amram Qora?. But his fame among western researchers stems from his Judeo-Arabic book Mas'ot Hibsh?sh, in which – responding to the request of Eduard *Glaser – he depicted his travels in 1870 to the northern and northeastern regions of Yemen, including rich and sometimes unparalleled information about the Jewish communities in those areas. In fact, he was chosen – owing to his erudition and his profession as a coppersmith – to accompany the Jewish-French Orientalist Joseph *Halévy in quest of Sabaean inscriptions. The main reason for writing Mas'ot Hibsh?sh was probably that both Hibsh?sh and Glaser were not content with the fact that Halévy, in his long and detailed reports about his travels in Yemen, completely ignored his ?an'?n? guide. In this work, Hibsh?sh claims that it was actually he who copied for Halévy the hundreds of Sabaean inscriptions. Hibsh?sh's Travels was edited by S.D. *Goitein from manuscripts, first published in Hebrew translation (1939) and then in its Judeo-Arabic original with an English abridged translation (1941). Hibsh?sh's significant contribution to knowledge of ancient and modern Yemen is universally acknowledged, as attested by the Italian, French, and Arabic translations of his Travels, recently published.
bibliography:
Hayyim Habshush, Travels in Yemen, ed. S.D. Goitein, (1941); Yémen – récit traduit de l'arabe yéménite, présenté par S. Naïm-Sanbar (1955); Y. Tobi, Iyyunim bi-Mgillat Teman (1986).
[Yosef Tobi (2nd ed.)]